The littlest member of TV's Keaton clan is as "happy as ever." Apparently seeing a felony charge dismissed can do wonders for one's disposition.
Brian Bonsall, who played Michael J. Fox's impressionable younger brother, Andy, on Family Ties, is serving two years' probation as part of a plea deal reached in the former child star's domestic-violence case.
Bonsall, 25, pleaded guilty last Friday to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in Boulder County, Colorado, the actor turned musician's longtime post-Hollywood home.
Per online records from the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, Bonsall's probation requires him to abstain from alcohol and drugs and submit to sobriety monitoring, among other terms.
Bonsall had been facing three other charges, including a felony rap for menacing, stemming from his arrest last March in which he was accused of pouring alcohol on his sleeping girlfriend and, later, putting the woman in a chokehold and throwing her to the bed when she attempted to leave their apartment. But due to the plea deal, all but the assault charge were dismissed.
In court, Boulder County's Daily Camera reported, Bonsall essentially said his latest brush with the law—he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in 2004, among other police-blotter entries—was for the best.
"It's bad it had to happen this way, I guess," Bonsall said, the newspaper reported. "I have a much better relationship with my family and everyone around me. I've come a long way because of this case."
Bonsall and the girlfriend are still a couple, each having completed a rehab program after the March incident, the paper said.
"When sober they got along fine, but when loaded...both participated in a violent relationship," defense attorney G. Paul McCormick said in court, according to the Daily Camera.
The girlfriend herself was arrested last March. But police quickly decided to focus their criminal investigation on Bonsall, and "unarrested" the woman.
Best known for his 1986-89 run in the domestic-bliss zone that was the sitcom Family Ties, Bonsall also starred in the 1994 comedy Blank Check and had a recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Steadily employed in Hollywood from the age of 4, Bonsall's prime-time career petered out by the time he was about 13. He hasn't had a major film or TV credit since 1994.